No, you're there to tank the mobs. The group leader is there to lead the group.

This is part of the problem - every raiding tank knows that they are expected on launch day to know the fine details and a good strategy of every fight in the instance, and that if they make a mistake and die then they're awful but if a dps or healer does it then it counts as a learning curve and a mistake. People expect the tank to do everything and whilst most of the tanks who've been doing it for years and are established have and can do this easily and have no problems taking a leadership and tactical role; people coming into it new who then get people that expect that from a tank and then get arsey when they can't deliver the whole package, is extraordinarily offputting. The expectation is not fair and does not reflect reality.

Back at Cata start I had that. I've been since BC and know what I'm doing. I'd been bear tanking in WOTLK too. Dinged, started a heroic dungeon with the guild. This was when Swipe and Thrash had a shared CD and bears were going mad and getting AOE aggro was nigh on impossible if the dps outgeared you and didn't use threat drops. I had a mage in the guild who was just treating it like a WOTLK heroic and getting upset at how holding aggro was a nightmare, kept dieing and then became patronising. The tank doesn't need to be in control of the group but he does need to be in control of the enemies, and when that was more difficult, getting dps berating you who did nothing to help themselves almost made me quit bear tanking.

It's so demoralizing and you don't realise until you're actually struggling yourself

It's a bit sad to see so many people in this thread advise the OP to not talk, ignore chat, not care what others think etc. Then again, I suppose this is the efficient way to deal with toxic players nowadays, with the LFG tools available.

OP - don't give up. Tanking is awesome. It's the players that choose to be jerks; nothing to do with the role they play. You might get the impression tanks are more arrogant, but it's mostly because in almost every group tanks are the most visible and you notice their behaviour the most.

There's a difference in ignoring specific people, and ignoring chat. I often have fun little conversations while running instances (something that do annoy some people as it "slow us down"). I see no reason to rise to abuse however. People shouting at you, complaining or whining? I just leave them at it. It's not worth my effort.

When I get in a group with a "pull faster, im teh best"-type of player, who ninja pulls groups before im ready(often ranged dps, sorry guys) I let him face tank a pack or two, and let him die, before picking up the packs.
That normally helps on bad behaviour from impatient "elitists" :-)

I seldom ignore people, because I find some weird amusement in listenings to their ingnorant stupidities.

When I get in a group with a "pull faster, im teh best"-type of player, who ninja pulls groups before im ready(often ranged dps, sorry guys) I let him face tank a pack or two, and let him die, before picking up the packs.
That normally helps on bad behaviour from impatient "elitists" :-)

I seldom ignore people, because I find some weird amusement in listenings to their ingnorant stupidities.

TANKS : not every1 who pulls for u is an asshole who hates your guts, maybe they see that the instance can safely go faster, i think ur reaction to this situation is extremely ignorant unless they are wiping the group. Tanks are NOT king shit and neither are dps, stop feeling so self-entitled, if things are going fine, let it be and maybe try to go faster. Coming from someone who tanked for 6 yrs and now dps's and pulls for the tank when necessary.

You gotta be able to take some flack when you're tanking. What you experienced was just the beginning of a long run of jerks yelling and swearing at you constantly. I mained a warrior tank for 6 years through Vanilla, TBC, Wrath and Cata, and what I thought was the hardest part of tanking was not playing as tank, but being able to carry a pack a jerks who just wait for you to do one mistake so they can yell at you.

I was able to ignore it for those 6 years until MoP hit, now people are expecting me to be some short of Hussain Bolt shield that can pull 100 groups and clear the whole instance for them in 5 mins. That, however, is was just too stressfull for me, so I decided to quit tanking.

Being a DPS is so much more relaxing because you don't have the same kind of responsibility a tank has, so stick to that if you can't handle one idiot who acts like an ass. I'm not saying you shouldn't try it out, I'm saying that you should be prepared for those kind of things as a tank

I have never really been a tank in 8 years, though I did try it before but I was pretty bad, so I gave it up.

So today, I was tanking my 2nd dungeon - Deadmines - and the healer DC'd. We were at the section in the foundry..... Literally within seconds of a new healer joining us the new healer says "Get tanking you fat ass cow". And then he starts telling me to use the "AOE HAMMER", and get my shit together.... well, what the dumbass didn't get was that that doesn't come until level 20, and I was level 18. Still am, in fact.

So, I got pissed and told him to kiss my fat cow ass and I rage quit...... which sucked because nobody else was complaining, and I sort of screwed them, but I'm not about to help some idiot who wants to be a jerk, and especially so since he doesn't even know I CAN'T cast, as he called it, the "AOE HAMMER".

I don't think I have the temperament to be a tank..... especially if I have 72 more levels of idiots.

I don't get the point of this rage quit? Just reply that you will use it once you get the skill in two levels. Then he would have looked like the fool to everyone.